by Duffie Dixon, WXIA-TV, Atlanta

Sean O'Connor was in his front yard Saturday during what he described as a sunny day. It started to sprinkle and as he reached for the rake, he says he heard a loud noise.

"I thought it was a tree limb falling, but moments later I found myself across the driveway on the ground," said O'Connor.

The lightning strike blew him out of his work boots. When he looked back at them they were smoldering.

"That's where the doctors believe the lightning bolt actually entered my body. They believe it was a direct strike," O'Connor said.

He's definitely going to need a new pair of work boots. His current pair is charred. The right shoe has a hole in the toe where the leather disintegrated.

It was O'Connor's wife who insisted he go to the hospital, where doctors were just as amazed that he had survived.

"At first they didn't believe me, but when I showed them the singed hair on my legs and the boots they all wanted to shake my hand. They said they'd never met someone who lived after being struck by lightning," he said.